TV Licence rules are changing for catch-up

The TV licence is having some changes which come into place on September 1st, and it seems a lot of people don't know about it.

According to a new survey, four in five households are oblivious or don't care. There's a risk of a fine of £1,000, which is worth knowing about though.

Basically, the changes that are imminent are this - you won't be able to watch the BBC's iPlayer unless you've bought a £145.50 licence.

Irritatingly, if you go on the iPlayer itself, there's been no mention of this new rule, so people who use it, but don't have a licence, could be in for a surprise (if we presume they're not reading these words right now).

TV Licensing are in the middle of mailing every home that they deem unlicenced, to tell them about all this, and there's also going to be billboard and TV adverts too.

A spokesperson for TV Licensing said: "This will not affect the huge majority of households which are already licensed."

"Fewer than two per cent of households only watch catch up - and only those watching iPlayer as part of their catch up viewing will need to buy a licence from September."

Of course, any mention of the TV Licence gets a lot of people's ire up, especially if they don't watch any BBC channels, and don't see any reason why they should have to own such a thing.

Things like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the other channels' catch-up services like ITV Hub and All 4, won't be asking you if you've got a TV Licence, so there's always that.

So what if you're standing firm, and refusing to buy one?

Well, TV Licensing are going with an honour system and enforcement via the usual letters and people knocking on your door. By the looks of it, there'll be no verification method, but most likely a 'tick this box if you have a licence' method.